Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Posted this on health/diet part but it seems pretty dead over there.

I contacted my vet on friday about a small mite problem, to see if he had a good remedy. He said to mix 1 bottle of NIX head lice soap with 1 gallon of water. Said it worked as well as anything he had unless I wanted to give her an injection. My question was he said to use the mixture to clean my tank, do I leave it in the tank or do I need to wash it off. He said to wash it off my snake after she soaked.

i will say this, i know many many people like nix and all those other chemicals, but in my reptile career (quite awhile now), i have only had 2 mite problems. my first was a couple years ago, with a rescue boa i took in. she was covered, badly with mites. i used the jurassic all natural reptile mite spray, they were 100% gone with 2 treatments on her (with soaking in water) and 2 treatments of everything in the cage. and just about 6 months or so ago, i had a couple of my holdback, next year breeder retics get them (which i am very positive they got them from a bad batch of cypress bark, that i tried for a little more humdity, but stopped immediately when i say a few of them on them). so i treated them the same way and same amount of treatments. in 2 full treatments, done. there were no more. and the best part is, it is all natural and can be used as much or as little as you need and can be sprayed directly on the animal. i have had great luck with that stuff. keep in mind that my retics only had a few here and there, but the rescue boa i had was covered, and they were erradicated in literally 2 full treatments. and i never had to worry about using toxic chemical. my veterinary hosptial i work at, is trying to go the natural cleaner route, best way to go. anyway just my experience and my 0.02 cents
-----
retic is king of kings

1.0 Tiger Retic
1.0 Albino Tiger Retic
0.1 Striped Tiger Retic (het albino)
0.1 Salmon Boa
1.0 Albino Boa
0.1 False Water Cobra

I actually used the NIX mixture on both my boa and on the cage. I applied it to the whole cage as it was minus the waterbowl. I too beleive I got mites from the new substrate I put in, never had mites before the change. I was just wondering if I needed to dispose of the substrate. From what I have seen it is the same active ingredient as prevent-o-mite and that supposedly can be sprayed and left on everything.

Equate Bedding Spray from Walmart's health and beauty section costs $4 per can and is identical to Provent-A Mite. I have used it for years with great results and no ill effects. The main thing is to use it exactly as Provent-A-Mite: Remove animal and water bowl, lightly spray substrate and cage furniture. Let dry thoroughly-at least 20-30 minutes. Replace animal and water bowl. Repeat in two weeks and all mites and their eggs will be killed. Do not spray directly on the snake. No need to rinse the cage-that would actually not work. A lot of substrates carry mites and that is why I use newspaper. Equate can be used to treat new substrate prior to putting it in the cage. Bill
-----
...three years ago it was just another snake cult...
The Retic is King.
Anacondas-the other Dark Side.
Afrocks-the dark side of the Dark Side.

I swear by Nix. It is amazing and works wonderfully. You really cannot go wrong with it.
-----
~Justyne Dickson
www.eboas.net